Hear me now oh thou bleak and unbearable world
Thou art base and debauched as can be
And a knight with his banners all bravely unfurled
Now hurls down his gauntlet to thee!
I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha
Destroyer of Evil am I,
I will march to the sound of the trumpets of glory
Forever to conquer or die
Hear me heathens and wizards and serpents of sin
All your dastardly doings are past
For a holy endeavor is now to begin
And virtue shall triumph at last!

Monday, June 14, 2010

At the top of his prime, Jimmy Dean was a big, big man

Jimmy Dean, a much beloved Country Hall of Fame legend long before he ever was the sausage king, died Sunday after 81 years. His wife, Donna Meade Dean, said Jimmy died of natural causes while eating in front of the TV while she was out of the room for a few moments.

Jimmy Dean rose to fame in 1961 on the strength of a single song, an early rap called "Big Bad John." The final line of the song originally described Big John as "one hell of man," but had to be changed to "a big, big man" in order to meet the strict language standards of the early 1960s.

Suffering from various ailments, Jimmy Dean kept busy and never failed to please an audience with a performance of his hit song. In what may be his last performance, Jimmy Dean sings "Big Bad John" on The Gaither Gospel Hourin January or February 2010.

A fan from Crab Orchard, TN had seen Jimmy sitting in a wheelchair on the program and asked Parade Magazine about Jimmy Dean and received this reply:

Just fine, thanks. "I have a lower-back problem that a lot of people get, but no pain whatsoever," the retired actor, singer, and sausage spokesman, 81, tells us. "I'm exactly where I want to be--we live out here on the James River outside Richmond, I have three ponds, and we catch the biggest, most beautiful bass you've ever looked at in your life." Good eating? "Good God, yes. I fry 'em," Dean says. In butter? He laughs. "Is there any other way?"